multitude of people that have received the Romish Faith and their Church say they hath replenished the greatest part of the world They would prove this by the Propagation of the Church in the Apostles time in Tertullian Irenaeus Hierom Augustine yea and afterward in Gregories days yea and now also besides many great Countries in Europe they have their Church in India America and the unknown parts of the world saith Bellarmine But the truth is not always to be measured by the judgment or opinion of the multitude The greatest part is not the best Christ calleth his Flock a little Flock Besides the Papists have nothing to do with the Church that was propagated in the Apostles time nor for the space of five or six hundred years after Christ and the most of their Errours are more lately sprung up than so The Popes Jurisdiction in Europe is much diminished And for the Indians and Americans it is well known what cruelty the Spaniards used to win that simple people to Christ as Benzo the Italian hath related it and there are few or none of their Popish Catholicks in those Countries but of their own brood that have been sent thither Universality unless it be joyned with verity is no sufficient note of the Church saith Mr. Fox Of Succession THey boast much of the long and perpetual Succession of their Popes from the Apostles for the space of these 1500 years and more condemning all Churches which cannot shew the like order of Succession But the Bishops of the Churches of Antioch and Rome and Alexandria boast themselves to be Successors of Saint Peter and yet are dissenting and separate in Communion The Bishops of Constantinople fetch their Succession from the Apostle Saint Andrew as Nicephorus goeth about to prove in the eighth Book of his Chronology Chapter 6. yet these Bishops by the Judgment of the Roman Church are Schismaticks and Hereticks Whence it appears that the Succession of Chairs cannot be a fit mark for the true Church since it is found in Heretical Churches In the Papal See some Schisms have been and divers times many Popes together excommunicating one another and reciprocally calling one another Antichrist and of those Antichrists the worst commonly overcame So according to the very Canons of the Roman Church factions and corruptions in the creation of Popes have frequently made their election void and therefore have broken the thread of that Succession Of Unity THe Papists boast much of Unity Flac. Ilyric but it is without ground of truth and yet they have many Dissentions Illyricus hath written a Book to the purpose concerning the several Sects and Divisions amongst them The Scotists and Thomists differ about meritum condigni congrui about Original sin in the Virgin Mary about a solemn Vow and a single life Great Differences there are between their Canonists and School-men Albertus Pius dissented from Cajetan Thomas from Lombard Scotus from Aquinas Occam from Scotu Alliancenses from Occam The first Nicene Council allowed Priests Marriage and the Communion in both kinds The Councils of Basil and Constance forbad the Laity the use of the Cup the same Councils decreed likewise that the Pope should be subject to General Councils Many Antipopes have there been at one and the same time Much also might be said of the great Diversity of their Monks and Friers in their Food Habits Shaving and the like Various are their Opinions likewise touching the Controversie of the Sacrament The Papists are very Schismatical engrossing the Title of Catholicks whereby they would imply both truth of Doctrine and universality of Consent to be found only with them but as one well observeth upon no better grounds than the Turks arrogate the Title of Mussulmannâ— that is Crocks Hypâ—â—â— Orthodox and Iâ—annâ— that is at Unity It is not their number that excuseth them from Schism no more than the revolt of the ten Tribes from the house of David could make the two Tribes that clave to it guilty of that rent and themselves to be innocent Unity must be in the truth else the saying of Nazianzen will take place Better is Discord bringing Light Greg. Nazianz Orat 1. de â—â—ace Than Vnity without all right Though Popery appear to have in it Unity yet the same is Vanity and Antichristianity and not in Christs Faith and Verity Of the Power of working Miracles BEllarmine doth greatly upbraid our Church for the defect of Miracles saying Hereticos non potuisse extorquere Miracula neque à Deo neque à Diabolo that Hereticks meaning the Protestants do neither extort Miracles from God nor from the Devil But do they take a pride that the Devil is forward in advancing their Cause and so backward to do us any kindness we will rest content with such Miracles as our Saviour and the Apostles wrought at the propagating of the Gospel but when we dissent from Christs Doctrine we will cast about for new Miracles I. A Miracle is a marvelous The pretended Miracles of Saint Francis reported by Vincentius Antâ—rine Bâ—naventure and Suâ—ius are more than marvelous sensible real Work above the vertue of natural causes wrought for good ends especially for the promoting of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation It is a work of wonder Act. 2.22 Luk. 8.25 Act. 7.30 31. So it is said of Simon Magus he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the Miracles and Signs which were done Îξίστατο he was transported beyond himself with admiration It is true many things may cause wonder which are not miraculous as 1. Other great Works 2. False and seeming Miracles wrought by the power and subtilty of Satan But here I speak of such Works as afford just cause of wonder such Works as deserve admiration from the wisest of men false Miracles are wonders in shew only II. True Miracles are sensible Works apparent to some or other of the Senses and therefore that pretended Popish Miracle of Transubstantiation is but an absurd fancy a thing denied by the Senses the Smell the Taste the Eye all with one consent say it is Bread and Wine and not Flesh and Blood When our Saviour turned Water into Wine there was a sensible change it had the colour and taste of Wine and that so evident that the Governour of the Feast preferred it above any they had drunk before When Melancton was a young Scholar at the University he heard one Lempus a Popish Doctor who would take upon him to draw a Picture of Transubstantiation and so to present a shadow of it to the Eye though it were invisible yea and impossible in it self but Melancton though he was then but a youth instead of wondering at the supposed Miracle admired the dotage and sottishness of the Doctor III. A Miracle is a true and real Work false Miracles are deceitful appearances many Popish Miracles are meer cheats of some lewd persons couzening tricks of deceitful men or wonders of lying spirits IV. True Miracles are above
of the Scripture 18. That the certain Interpretation of the Scripture is not to be gathered out of the Scripture 19. They make seven Principles of the Christian Doctrine which are all grounded in the Authority of the See and Pope of Rome Their Errours concerning God and Christ 1. SOme hold that the Son and Spirit are not God of them selves 2. Ex Chamieâ— They deny the infallible certainty of Divine Providence 3. * Of this see the Writings between Doctor Hammond and Mr. Jeanes They deny that the Soul of Christ did increase in Wisdom 4. They deny that the Soul of Christ did suffer torments for mankind any otherwise than by way of sympathy with his Body 5. They deny him to be the only Head of the Church 6. They say that he is Mediator only according to his humane Nature 7. Tho. part 3. quaest 83. That the Blood of Christ is not necessary to wash away Sins but that they may be done away by holy Water knocking the Breast and other ridiculous means 8. They seem to give unto Christ a santastical Body that neither consisteth of dimensions nor occupieth a place which when he was born did not open the Womb of his Mother and when he arose did penetrate the Stone of the Sepulchre and when he instituted his Supper lay hid under the species of Bread and Wine 9 They deny Christ to be the only Mediator of Intercession but joyn with him Angels and Saints 10. They deny Christ to be the only Prophet whose voice only must be heard spiritual King and Priest of the New Testament But they make the Pope the chief Prophet and Pastor King and Monarch and Priest whence it followeth that the Pope is not only opposed to Christ as his Adversary but as his Rival 11. That the unchangeable Priesthood of Christ the Eternal Priest is made Eternal by the Succession of other sacrificing Priests which they make 12. That Christ who is God over all blessed for ever did merit for himself though he was both Viator Comprehensor in Termino extra Terminum and in the days of his flesh did possess all desired happiness and saw God face to face while he lived here 13 The Jesuits say that Jesus Christ might have sinned might have been subject to vices might have fallen into errour and folly 14. That Christs Merits are not the only meritorious cause of Salvation 15. Fevard p. 430. That the Fear and Agony of Christ proceeded not from any feeling of Gods wrath or indignation but he only shewed the affection of humane sense fearing Death 16. They are so bold as to appoint the place where Christ shall appear in the day of Judgment namely in the East 17. That the Son of Man shall appear with the sign of the Cross born before him Then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in Heaven Matth. 24.30 that is say they the Sign of the Cross 18. They deny that God alone is to be worshipped and do communicate Divine Worship to certain Creatures 19 That God necessarily gives Grace to him that doth his best 20. Some Jesuits assert that we satisfie the Love we owe to God by loving him three or four times in our life And others that we may pass over our whole life without any thought of loving him and yet be saved after all this 21. That God might give Grace and Glory to men because of the honest actions of natural Vertues though they had not of themselves any relation to Grace or Glory which are of a supernatural order That is to say that God could save men by actions purely natural and so that man could deliver himself from sin and misery without having need of Jesus Christ and that by consequence his active and passive obedience were superfluous and exacted from him without any necessity Their Errours concerning Man 1. Ecc. Chamier THat every thing against the Law is not sin 2. That Concupiscence and the first motions thereof be no sins nor have the nature of sin 3. That all Sins are not in their own nature mortal Menric Sâ—m Mâ—â—â— lib. 4. cap. 20. that Sin is called mortal because it brings Death upon the Soul that is say they it depriveth it of Gods Grace That some Sins are in their own nature venial and do not deserve eternal punishment 4. That by every mortal sin Grace is lost 5. The Divinity of the Jesuits maintains Aversions against our Neighbour it allows us to wish and do him hurt and even to kill him though it be for temporal concerns and also when we are assured that by killing him we damn him 6. They cherish Pride and Vain-glory in all sorts of persons even in the most holy actions and according to their Divinity it is almost impossible to sin mortally by Pride or Vain-glory. 7. Their Doctrine gives all sorts of liberty to the Senses and justifies in a manner all sorts of Pleasure which it can taste 8. That Discourses even of filthy things though they proceed from curiosity and levity do not go beyond a venial sin and that to speak of filthy things for the pleasure that is taken in those Discourses without having a design to pass on to dishonest actions is but a venial sin 9. Escohar Filliut 〈◊〉 Lessius Layman Zanch 〈◊〉 The Jesuits authorize all sorts of ways to get Wealth and dispense with restitution of what is procured by the most unjust and infamous ways They teach that Christians may take Usury of the Turk Cornel a laipde in Deut. 23.19 10. They teach that if a man be drunk or doing any thing with a formal design to provide for his health all the the evils that happen in consequence thereof are to be esteemed as coming by accident that it is no sin to eat and drink ones fill without necessity for pleasure only provided that it do not prejudice ones health 11. The Jesuits allow of Magick and Witchcraft and say that they are not superstitious who heal the sick by Charms composed of Psalms and other Prayers and who by stroking and Prayers heal them of incurable Diseases 12. The Jesuits teach-several ways of mocking God men without punishment Jesuits Morals and without sin in promising that which they never intend to do and not doing that which they have promised although they are obliged thereunto by Vow and by Oath They have found out an expedient to deceive the world to take a salfe Oath even before a Judg without perjury 13. Equivocation and mental reservation Mason of 〈…〉 that mystery of iniquity and Quintessence of impudence is maintained at this day both in Press and Pulpit by the Popish Doctors though it be far from Christian simplicity and the Doctrine of God which requireth that men speak the truth from the heart 14. According to these Jesuits there is scarcely any habitual sin and that custom of sinning may make a man uncapable of sinning 15. That
the vertue of natural causes false Miracles may seem to the weakness of men to be above the power of Creatures but are not so many of them are effected by natural means though in a secret and cunning way others of them are delusions of the Senses Satan cannot work the least Miracle by the power of his word No power of the Devil can raise the dead to life which is a work simply above the power of Creatures This Christ did with a word Mark 5.41 42. V. The ends for which Divine Miracles are wrought are always good chiefly for the promoting of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation So the Miracles wrought by the power of Christ tended to declare him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World that men might receive him and believe in him to Salvation to prove and confirm the heavenly Doctrine of the Scripture to seal the truth of the Gospel to confirm the Minds of men in this assurance that the way of holy worship commanded in Scripture is appointed by the Lord himself by whose Almighty Power these Miracles are wrought but the lying wonders among the Papists wrought by the cunning and power of Satan are for evil and cursed ends like their Anthor to draw people from the truth to confirm them in Errours in Superstition praying for the dead and to the dead worshipping of Images establishing Monkish dreams of Purgatory and the like forgeries and absurdities Miracles are neither necessary nor perpetual in the Church If any bring in a new Doctrine it behoveth him to do Miracles But we of whom Miracles are demanded bring no new Doctrine Of the Gift of Prophecy THis the Papists hold also to be a perpetual mark whereby to know the Church for they say that the true Church of God wanteth not those which are endued with the spirit of Prophecy and they tell us that in every age there hath flourished some Prophet in their Church And for this they produce a few forged examples of Saint Bernard and Saint Francis a Popish Saint and the Founder of the superstitious Order of the Franciscans and of such others It is true there have lived some among them in their Church which in those days were counted Prophets and Prophetesses as Hildegardis anno 1146. likewise Bridget Catharine Senensis whom Bellarmine reckoneth up among others that wrought Miracles But concerning these a learned man answereth as the Jesuit doth for Sibilla a Prophetess among the Heathen that she prophecied as touching such matters as should fall out to the Church for a testimony of the Faith of the Christians and so to be counted herein a Prophetess of the Church rather than of the Heathen So if those three above-named were Prophetesses they were of our Church and not theirs for they prophecied of the decay of their Church and raising up of ours The Devil deluded many Popish Monks with strange Raptures and Visions though in their nature far different from those mentioned in the holy Scripture For Saint Paul in his Revelations was caught up into the third Heaven whereas most Monks with a contrary motion were carried into Hell and Purgatory and there saw apparitions of strange Torments Fuller in Vita Hildegaâ—d Also Saint Johus Revelation forbids all addition to the Bible under heavy penalties their Visions are commonly on purpose to piece out the holy Scripture and to establish such Superstitions as have no footing in Gods Word as a judicious Divine of ours hath well noted We read of a notable Popish Prophetess in King Henry the eighths daies Elizabeth Barton a Nun commonly called the holy Maid of Kent who being instructed by the Friers seigned as though she had many Revelations she prophecied that if the King proceeded in his Divorce then in question between him and Queen Catharine that he should not be King one year no not one month but he lived almost twenty years after that and this Prophetess worthily suffered for her demerits with all her accomplices Of Prosperity which the Papists make another Mark of the tâ—ue Church NOw see how unlike the condition of the false Church of Rome is to the condition of Saint Peter and the true Church of Christ Saint Peter reckoneth upon suffering persecution and death for the Gospel of Christ this he had from the mouth of Christ himself after his Resurrection and so we see that the Church of Christ is not exempted from the Cross by the Victory of Christ or by his Resurrection from the dead But wherein doth the Church of Rome which pretendeth it self to be Saint Peters Bishoprick and Diocess and its Bishop to be its Successor glory In a flourishing Church-Monarchy sufficient to make Kings Princes Emperours to wait at their Gates to hold the Popes Stirrup lead his Horse lay their Necks under his Feet kiss his Foot sufficient to depose Kings and Emperours sufficient to kill with Fire and Sword those that oppose their Decrees and Inventions though not convinced of any on Errour by the Word of God rightly understood And in this estate they bragg that their Church hath continued many hundred years without any interruption Could the true Church of Christ ever say so much in any age May not the Church say as Saint Paul of himself Bonds and imprisonment abide me poverty contempt from the world I am made a spectacle to Angels to the world and to men This true Kings Daughter is all glorious with in her Beauty consisteth in inward spiritual Graces not in Purple and Scarlet Gold and precious Stones The truth is the Popish Church glorieth in her shame and that which she boasteth of is a good argument to prove that she is not the true Church and Spouse of Christ who do talk so much of the Cross and make so much of the sign of the Cross as the Pope and his Followers But who do less bear the Cross of Christ than they they lay it upon others backs with great cruelty and violence even themselves that instead of being a suffering Church it is a persecuting Church instead of giving its Blood for the Truth it doth so outragiously spill the Blood of others that it should make any one that is not fearfully blinded to renounce it and to come out of her as an accursed Babylon a Cage of unclean Birds Are not the Popish cruelties registred as it were in Letters of Blood consult our Book of Martyrs what banishing excommunicating cursing imprisoning racking reviling drawing beheading hanging burning famishing tormenting divers ways sometimes of single persons sometimes of Towâ—â—… and Cities sometimes by the common Executioner sometimes by great Armies as may be instanced in the Waldenses and Albigenses somewhat more anciently of later times in Germany France Italy Spain England Scotland Ireland The scarlet-Whore seemeth as it were to have surfeited on the Blood of the Saints our Country hath been polluted with horrible Murthers until the Reign of King Henry the seventh for the space of three